Creative Writing outreach
Kevin Brophy's poetry collection, Mr Wittgenstein's Lion
Assoc Prof Kevin Brophy's fourth collection of poetry, Mr Wittgenstein's Lion was launched by Judith Rodriguez at the new Australian Poetry Centre in St Kilda on 29 July 2007. It continues Kevin's themes of family, street, suburb and memory. Some of the poems have appeared in Best Australian Poems 2004 and 2006, and have won national prizes and commendations. Kevin was awarded the 2005 Martha Richardson Medal for the poem, 'Tulips', and 'A week in Jamieson' was highly commended in the 2006 Australian Book Review Poetry Prize.
Watch a video of Kevin Brophy reading his work as part of Melbourne's Overload Poetry Festival.
Creative Writing staff member to continue the work of Five Islands Press
Kevin Brophy, Head of the Creative Writing program at the University of Melbourne, is member of a small group who will be continuing Five Islands Press as a poetry publisher. Ron Pretty, who has been the publisher at Five Islands for seventeen years, publishing 230 books of poetry, retired in August 2007.
Five Islands Press has been re-constituted as a non-profit incorporated association and will be publishing about four books a year. The team continuing the work of the press are: Kevin Brophy; Robyn Rowland, a fellow of the School of Culture and Communication; Dan Disney, a prize-winning poet and a PhD student in the School; and Lyn Hatherly, a poet and scholar with one book published.
Shadowboxing
Published by Scribe Publications, 2006
Shadowboxing voted one of Victoria's favourites
The top five novels in the State Library's Reading Victoria campaign were announced in February 2007 and Shadowboxing by Tony Birch came fifth in a poll of readers' all-time favorite novels set in Victoria.
Shadowboxing was also shortlisted for 2006 Queensland Premier's Literary Awards - Australian Short Story Collection.
Tony Birch lectures in the Creative Writing program in the School of Culture and Communication, teaching the subjects Creative Writing 1: Autofictions, Writing Literary Non-Fiction and Writing Genealogies of Place.
Call Me Mum
Call Me Mum, a telefeature written by Kathleen Mary Fallon, screened on SBS television in 2006. It was a finalist for Best Screenplay, 2006 NSW Premier's Literary Awards and nominated for Best Television Screenplay, 2006 Australia Writers Guild Awards.
When Kate decides to reunite her Torres Strait Islander foster son with his birth mother, dangerous family and racial tensions surface. Set in the recent past, Call Me Mum is a series of interlinked monologues where five characters unravel a complex tale of mothering, race relations and family in Australia.
Made for SBS Independent, Call Me Mum was directed by Margot Nash and produced by Michael McMahon. Director of Photography: Andrew De Groot, editor Denise Haratzis, production designer Paddy Readron, composer David Bridie.
Read a review from Realtime Arts of 'Call Me Mum' by Keith Gallasch.
Kathleen Mary Fallon teaches script writing and writing for performance in the Creative Writing program at the University of Melbourne.